The present invention relates generally to manufacturing components, and more specifically to methods and apparatus for aligning, supporting, and/or securing components for manufacture.
Accurate manufacturing of gas turbine engine components may be a significant factor in determining both manufacturing timing and cost. Specifically, when the component is a gas turbine engine blade, accurate manufacturing of the blade may be a significant factor affecting an overall cost of fabrication of the gas turbine engine, as well as subsequent modifications, repairs, and inspections of the blade. For example, at least some known gas turbine engine blades receive a protective coating to facilitate protection of the turbine blades when the blades are subjected to high velocity fluid flows in a high temperature environment. Accurately coating the turbine blades facilitates enhancing a useful life of the blades.
To align a turbine blade for spray coating, known systems enable a single blade to be coupled to a positioning system to enable a spray coating to be applied to the blade. At least some known positioning systems require the blades be repositioned several times through a variety of orientations to enable the coating to be applied at the desired thickness across each portion of the blade to be coated. The process is then repeated for each blade requiring a coating. As such, applying a coating to a component using known systems may be a time consuming process that increases engine manufacturing cycle times and fabrication costs.